Patrick Bateman, the main character from the movie American Psycho resembles Jack, the main character from the movie Fight Club.

Both are disillusioned/fed up with mainstream Americanism. Both are crazy. Both are self-absorbed. Both are fully aware of God and yet choose to reject Him.

The differ in how they respond to their disillusionment, though these responses are still basically the same. Jack flaunts his imperfections while Bateman tries to pass himself off as perfect. Either way, on the inside they both still feel dead to the world.

Both lash out violently: Jack against himself, Bateman against other people. Neither one feels remorse when they sacrifice other people's lives for their little whims.

9 comments:

Nice Article. I can actually see the similarities. I couldn't take American Pyscho seriously at all but it was funny whereas Fight Club did have a nitty gritty real type feel even though the plot might have been a little shakey.

judging from american psycho, the movie, christian bale is nowhere as developed as the Tyler/Jack relationship.

Also Bale (his name is forgettable/I don't care) cares and is obsessed with materialism (see business cards) whereas Durden/Jack strive to rid themselves of societal consumerism. It's nihilistic, gen-x, existentialist. Durden would kick Bale's ass if he ever saw him in real life.

I really don't think this is a legitimate comparison. This is kind of grasping at straws between two antagonists. Tyler Durden did care about other people in his pursuit of his goals (in fact, his goals were centered around helping the world). He had direction, focus, and purpose in his ventures. Patrick Bateman had none of these, really. American Psycho, in fact, was just a giant criticism of the "masters of industry" in the '80s, being able to flaunt their powers as much as possible without consequence. The major difference I see between the two would be capitalist ideals vs. socialist ideals. But that's a bit of a stretch, because Tyler Durden was more of an Anarcho-Primitivist than a socialist. Overall, I don't think this is a legitimate comparison.

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